Pakistan, Aug. 12 -- The diplomacy around Iran made another set of headlines on Tuesday when Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said signals from the previous two or three days suggested Washington and Tehran were close to "some sort" of arrangement. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi landed in Tehran for the sixth time in the last six months for talks with Iranian officials amid mediation efforts.

As if to dampen growing hopes, US President Donald Trump offered his own strategic menu: let Iran fail economically or hit it "really, really hard." A day earlier, he had demanded compensation from Tehran for damages to "the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza." Such contradictions have become more consequential than presidential theatr...